This Kiss (Made In Montana Book 12) (16 page)

Ethan’s strangled groan penetrated the sensual fog. His arms shook. Sweat beaded on his skin. His hands slipped from her hips. One landed on her thigh. She hadn’t let go of his neck. Her own body hadn’t stopped quaking. The spasms quivering inside her left her breathless and as weak as a newborn kitten.

She knew she should climb off. She couldn’t move.

Ethan kissed the corner of her mouth. He lifted her up and laid her back on the mattress carefully, so her head landed on the pillow. Letting out a big whoosh of breath, he collapsed at her side.

“I think I know what it feels like to ride a bull,” she murmured between gulps of air.

His laugh barely made it out. “You stayed on for more than eight seconds.”

“I expect a buckle,” she said, and then just breathed for a while. “That position really was ridiculously amazing. We have to do it again.”

“Not right now.”

“Wuss.”

Chuckling, he rolled toward her. “We will. Do it again. And again.”

“Many times.”

He kissed the side of her neck. “Many times,” he agreed, the warmth in his voice bringing a tightness to her chest.

She snuggled up against him.

He drew away for a moment, but just to pull the covers over them. And then he wrapped an arm around her, bringing her close.

Many times.

Repeating the words in her head made her smile. Though it was easy to say glib things now when she was here with Ethan, quite literally the man of her dreams.

But there was only one thing she knew for certain.

Ethan Styles was impossible. Impossible to understand. And impossible to resist...

16

S
OPHIE
WAS
SITTING
on a picnic bench near a snack bar about two hours from the motel where they’d stayed last night. No one else was sitting outside. The air was warm for November, but that wasn’t saying much. The sun felt good, though, and she wanted to get the dreaded conversation with Lola over with—if she’d ever call back.

If Craig called soon, that would make her exceedingly happy, but she wasn’t expecting to hear from him for another hour. He would’ve only received the paperwork this morning.

Lola was beginning to worry her. She hadn’t been answering her texts or calls. Which wasn’t like her at all. She couldn’t be
that
busy just because Sophie was gone. Anyway, Lola had been anxious to keep in close touch, and since she was expecting Sophie and Ethan to be arriving in Wattsville this morning, it seemed very odd she wouldn’t answer her phone.

Sophie sure hoped this weird behavior didn’t have anything to do with Hawk. When Sophie checked him out early on, she hadn’t found anything significant or violent in his past. She would’ve definitely alerted Lola.

Just to make herself feel better, she texted Mandy to see if she knew what was happening at the office. Talking to her would be better, but Sophie wanted to be the one to tell Lola about the last-minute decision to go to Las Vegas. Yes, she could’ve left a heads-up on a voice mail, but she hadn’t felt right doing that. She wanted to explain everything, even let Lola yell and scream at her if she wanted.

Best-case scenario, everything with Lola was fine—just the regular Monday madness keeping her busy. And Sophie would hear from Craig telling her the charges had been dropped, and Lola and Sophie wouldn’t be on the hook for the full hundred-thousand-dollar bond.

If only she lived in a perfect world...

She looked up from her phone to take the cup of coffee Ethan had brought her. He bent to kiss her and even before their lips touched, she got that giddy feeling in her tummy that had been hanging around since they left Blackfoot Falls yesterday.

“They didn’t have lattes or anything fancy. You should’ve seen the look I got when I asked for your part-skim, caramel-drizzled whatever.”

“Well, if you didn’t know what to ask for, how do you know if they have it or not?”

“Trust me, the second I mentioned the word
latte
, the old guy stopped listening. He was too busy mumbling something about yuppies ruining the world.”

She eyed the Danish he’d brought for himself. “We just had breakfast.”

“So?” He took a big bite, chewed, then sipped his coffee. “Do you know how many meals I’ve missed since I hooked up with you?”

“Is it my fault you think sex is a meal replacement?”

Ethan touched the brim of his hat and smiled at some phantom person behind her. “Mornin’, ma’am.”

“Yeah, like I’m going to fall for that,” Sophie said, and heard a tsking sound. She refused to turn all the way around, but managed to catch sight of the little white-haired woman walking toward the snack counter.

She looked at Ethan and they both laughed.

“You’re the one who wanted to sit out here in the sun for a while,” he said.

“Yes, and now I want a bite of that Danish.”

“Then you’d better ask nicer.” His next bite demolished half the pastry.

Her phone buzzed and she completely forgot about everything but the fact that she had a confession to make to Lola. And she sure didn’t want to do it in front of Ethan.

As if he’d read her mind, he got to his feet. “I’ll go pick up more Danish,” he said.

“Hey, Lola, you were starting to worry me,” Sophie said, watching Ethan stroll toward the snack bar.

“Where are you?” Lola asked. She sounded as if she’d been crying.

“Are you okay?”

“No. Not really.”

“Are you at the office?”

“I was, but I’m at home now.”

Sophie’s chest hurt. Lola practically lived at the office. “Does this have anything to do with Hawk?”

Lola burst out crying. She tried to talk but couldn’t seem to catch her breath.

“Can you tell me if Hawk is there with you now? Just say yes or no.”

“No,” Lola managed to choke out.

Sophie swallowed, feeling helpless and close to tears herself. “Did he hurt you?”

“No. Yes.” Her voice broke, but the sobs were easing. “Not like you think.”

“Okay, don’t rush. I’ll be right here when you can talk.” Sophie caught herself rocking back and forth, an arm wrapped across her stomach. She quickly glanced around. No sign of Ethan. She didn’t want him to see her like this. He’d want an explanation she might not be comfortable giving. “Lola? I just wanted you to know I’m still here.”

“I’m okay,” she said. “Or getting there. Where are you? Are you close by?”

“No, I’m not.” Sophie bit her lip. “I’m sorry. Is Mandy there?”

Lola sniffed. “No. I have to call her, though. She needs to help me find that goddamn, lying son of a bitch. I could kill that bastard.”

Sighing with relief, Sophie listened to her cousin throw in a few more curses. Lola was sounding more like herself. Anger would serve her better than hurt right now.

Sophie’s cell signaled an incoming call. She saw that it was Craig and winced. He’d have to leave a message. “Lola? Can you tell me what happened?”

A sob broke. “I’m sorry, Soph. Please don’t hate me. I was such a fool. My God, I can’t believe I’m that woman.”

“I’m not going to hate you, Lola. Just tell me what happened.”

Silence turned to quiet sobbing before Lola finally spoke. “He ripped us off,” she said. “Hawk stole everything.”

Sophie tried to quickly process the information. They really didn’t have much for him to steal. “What exactly did Hawk take?”

“I really do mean everything, Soph,” Lola said softly, then paused, trying to control her breathing. “He got into the safe.”

Sophie felt the blood drain from her face. A violent shiver surged through her body. “How did—” She wouldn’t ask. It didn’t matter. Staying calm, keeping Lola calm, those were her priorities. Not dropping her phone would be good, too. Her hands were beginning to shake. “Since you guys had a fight maybe he’s just trying to get your attention.”

“No, I think he might’ve been planning this for a while. I’m gonna kill him. I am. God, I’m so stupid. This is all my fault.”

“Don’t go there, Lola. We need to stay focused. Okay?” Hell, Sophie was one to talk. She’d made her own mess. “How long ago could he have done this?”

“Last night, I think. Late. After we talked around midnight.”

It was eleven-forty now. That gave the prick a head start. Sophie had to get to the research she’d done on him a few months ago. With any luck, there would be a clue as to where he’d gone. First, she’d get a hold of Mandy. And she had to talk to Craig. Jesus. Ethan was supposed to be in court in two hours. Hopefully Craig had worked his magic and it was a moot point by now. But she couldn’t count on it.

“You’re awfully calm,” Lola said. “Do you understand what I’m telling you? He took
everything
.” Her voice had risen and she sounded close to losing it again.

“I know. I’m just trying to think about our next step.”

They’d always disagreed about how much cash to keep in the office. But after business had picked up, Lola had stubbornly insisted on having a minimum of twenty thousand dollars they could get their hands on quickly. “Okay...so, I’m going to call Mandy first, but she’ll still want you to fill in the details, and then I’m going to see if I can track him electronically. We both know Hawk is too stupid to hide his trail.”

“Yeah,” Lola said with a small laugh. “There is that.”

“So...” Sophie had to ask. “Just so I know what we’re dealing with, can you narrow down what you mean by
everything
?”

Lola let out a sob. “Thirty-five thousand cash,” she said, and Sophie wanted to faint. “And two pieces of jewelry we were holding as collateral.”

Sophie held her breath. How could she have forgotten about the collateral items? “Do you mean the antique brooch Mrs. Sellars gave us for her son’s bond?”

“Yes,” Lola choked out. “And the signed Mohammad Ali glove from Mr. Polinski.”

Sophie held in a whimper. Mrs. Sellar’s ruby-and-diamond brooch alone was worth about sixty thousand. So Lola’s Bail Bonds was pretty much ruined financially. “Anything else?”

“I don’t know how you can be this calm. I really don’t.”

Guilt, probably, because Sophie had created her own mess. She turned and saw Ethan approaching. He looked worried, so she tried to clean up her body language. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m still in shock,” Sophie said. “But let’s use it to our advantage. Let’s hang up and I’ll contact Mandy, then get online.”

“You have to call me soon, or you know I’ll go nuts,” Lola said. “I think I’ll go to the bar and ask around. Hawk might’ve shot off his mouth.”

“Mandy should probably do that.”

“Everyone there knows me.” Lola sighed. “They probably all think I’m a dumb ass, too, so what the hell?”

“For the record, I didn’t say you were a dumb ass, nor do I think you are a dumb ass. We all have our blind spots,” Sophie said, watching Ethan advance on her. “I’ll call you soon.”

“Wait. You have Styles, right? He’ll make it to court?”

“Let’s worry about Hawk for now.”

“We really don’t need to fork out money for Styles.”

“I know that,” she snapped, adding another layer of guilt to the growing pile. “Sorry.”

“Nope. You have every right. Call me.” Lola disconnected.

Sophie wanted to lay her head down and sob her heart out. She found a smile for Ethan when he set the paper bag on the table in front of her.

“Problem?” he asked, his eyes narrowed.

“Nothing I can’t handle. Duty calls, though, and I have to get my tablet out of my bag.” She glanced around, mostly because she was having trouble with that intense gaze of his. She couldn’t explain anything now. She’d lose it and be tempted to hide in the comfort of his arms. He’d feel guilty they hadn’t returned to Wyoming and she didn’t want that. He had the finals to worry about.

* * *

T
HERE
WAS
ANOTHER
ISSUE
. She needed privacy and good Wi-Fi. “How about we find someplace where you can get some rest while I do a little work? Would that be okay?” she asked lightly. “I don’t care if we go back to the same motel for a while.”

Ethan’s eyebrows went up. He looked as though he had a hundred questions. “Whatever you want.”

“I have to make a quick call first, okay? To Mandy. She works in our office,” Sophie said, trying like hell to sound normal. “Oh, and Craig called while I was talking to Lola. I had to let him go to voice mail, but I’ll get back to him. Fingers crossed that he has good news.”

Ethan stood there stone-faced, just watching her. She wasn’t fooling him at all. He stepped back so she could get up, then offered her a hand. His skin was warm, his grip solid and sure. She felt safe with him. Alive. Happy. Whole. Which made her feel all the more a fool. This bubble in which they’d existed for the past three days was only a blip in time. A page torn from their normal lives and soon to be discarded. Yet she’d been willing to give up so much of herself, jeopardize the reputation of the business she’d built with Lola.

But Sophie couldn’t afford self-pity or to let her shame interfere with finding Hawk. There would be plenty of time for all that later.

They were halfway to the truck when a sudden flash of memory stopped her cold. That day in the office when she’d announced she was going after Ethan... Hawk had sided with her. Lola had already been annoyed with him, yet he’d spoken out against her, taking Sophie’s side. It made sense now. Lola was right. The bastard had been planning the theft for a while. Hawk knew Sophie didn’t like him and he’d wanted her out of the way. But even worse, he’d used Lola.

Sophie was going to find that asshole. She would, because she was smarter than him and she knew so much more about him than he could imagine. And when she finally got her hands on him...

“Sophie? Please.” Ethan put his arms around her. She’d never seen him look this worried, not even about his own problem. “Is it me? Am I causing you this grief?”

This wasn’t fair to him. And anyway, she couldn’t avoid his gaze forever. “We have a problem at the office. It’s—” She cleared her throat. “My cousin Lola’s boyfriend... We were robbed. The office safe was cleaned out.”

“Jesus.” Ethan touched her cheek. “I’m sorry. Did he get away with a lot?”

Despite trying to be stoic, she let out a whimper. “It’s bad. He stole a lot of cash, some expensive jewelry we were holding as collateral, a piece of valuable sports memorabilia that might be irreplaceable.”

When Ethan touched her cheek again, she realized he’d been wiping tears. She jerked away, embarrassed and twice as furious with Hawk.

“Obviously we have to do something,” Ethan said, easily staying abreast of her on the brisk walk to his truck. “I’m sure you have an idea.”

“
You
will do nothing. Except whatever it is you do to get ready for the finals.” She checked her cheeks for moisture. “I’m calling Mandy, a bounty hunter who works with us. She’s the real deal. Totally badass. She’ll help me find the stupid prick. Hawk really is stupid, probably left electronic footprints all over the country. I’ll work on that while Mandy does her thing. Oh, we will find him, and when we do...”

They got to the truck and Ethan opened the passenger door for her.

“Look,” she said, keeping her gaze lowered, “I feel horrible for Lola because she’s blaming herself, and she shouldn’t. This has nothing to do with you.” As soon as Sophie was seated, she glanced at Ethan. He’d been so quiet.

His expression grim, he closed the door. She watched him round the hood. He looked angry.

She understood. She’d been incensed with Wendy Fullerton on his behalf, so she got it. Of course Ethan would be upset for her. And then she thought of something else. Damn. She couldn’t afford to lose it now. Craig. She had to return his call. God, she really, really hoped the news was good. She wasn’t about to leave Ethan twisting in the wind. Maybe he was angry because he thought she’d dropped the ball on him.